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RED Dragon Sensor Is Ready For Upgrades

RED made a splash at NAB this year by installing new Dragon sensors right on the showroom floor. With 6K resolution, 16 stops of dynamic range, and a native ISO of 2000, Epic owners were dying to know when they could upgrade. Well, Jared Land just let everyone on REDUser know that customer upgrades will begin the first week of September.

Here is the full post from Jared on REDUser:

“Dragon ( the sensor ) was actually done before NAB… when you all saw cameras being put together. Sorting out the existing camera infrastructure so the sensor and the ASIC could be an upgrade has been the consuming part.

But we are there. Final parts are now being sent off to manufacturing and customer upgrades will begin the first week of September.

It’s a good time to share with you a few things we have learned along the way.

The increased latitude of the Dragon isn’t just in the bottom. The increase is also at the top.

So you get the same 16+ stops of latitude at 200 asa as you do at 2000 with the Dragon. No latitude penalty when you lower ASA. Which means when you are shooting outside, less ND filters. Less IR issues, better images.

Because the Dragon also has lower bottom end noise than the MX, You can still push the camera to where you want it.. and you will still get cleaner images than you did on Epic MX at any comparable ASA.

The Dragon also wants to be warmer than not ( go figure ) . Good thing, as the Epic itself doesn’t have a problem generating heat. A match made in heaven.

The Dragon Firmware will automatically bring the sensor temp up… which can mean a lower fan speed (depending on your circumstances).

Dragon Firmware is actually ahead of the Epic MX firmware.. rock solid. Since we have had so much time with the Dragon… it is probably the most tested build we have ever had.

Graeme has also had the time to really dig deep into the color science. He will say he is never done.. but there are alot of color improvements he has made that are worth the upgrade all by themselves.

6K is incredible. I know the rest of the world has just (finally) landed at 4K… but 6k motion and the stills pulled from Dragon are remarkable. O the stills. And talk about oversampling for 4k motion delivery. It’s hard to go back.

Rocket-X is going to be your Dragon’s new best friend. Seriously. It should be shipping at the time the upgrades begin.

Expect to see images start trickling out over the next few weeks.”

While previous still images from the Dragon sensor have looked pretty darn amazing, we’ve yet to see any moving images. Maybe in the next couple of weeks RED will deliver us a little present!